SYRIA: [PUBLIC] Turning night into day: analysis of where air strikes blamed on Israel hit - May 05

The appearance of video showing a dramatic night-time air strike on Damascus, on May 5, presented an opportunity to demonstrate the power of geolocation and to answer, with precision, one pertinent question: Where did it hit?

Using open-source maps, activist reports, media reports, and some daylight videos, we were able to take the single most dramatic explosion of that night’s air raids (above) and geolocate it. We were also able to pinpoint two buildings destroyed by the raid.

Media reports tended to conflate the location of the May 5 strike with an earlier strike, on January 30, that targeted SAM rocket launchers, outside a modern building, near the suburb of Al Fardous (الفردوس). Our research, however, showed that the strikes targeted separate locations, the second being a significantly older development about a mile away from the first strike. There may have been other strikes, but this was the site of the biggest explosion and the most significant location on the night. For our work on the earlier strike, on January 30, see this detailed investigation.

This example is also available as a media-rich Google Map and a Google Earth KML file, with the key media and screenshots embedded. For comfort, I recommend opening the KML file in Google Earth.

A close look at the uploading channel, an activist account called Free Qudsaya, showed it consistently posted from the town of Qudsaya (قدسيا), outlined on the map. Qudsaya slopes gently down to the Barada River Valley and the old Beirut road. To the northeast are a series of ridges that culminate in the city’s iconic Mount Qasioun.

This video was posted to the same channel a week before the blasts and shows the Barada river valley and the ridges behind Mount Qasioun. By careful inspection and with reference to Google Maps and Google Earth data, we were able to determine that this video was taken near the same spot where our lead video was taken (marked with a yellow camera icon in the map).

Using Google Earth, we tracked the location of the daylight video to an elevated postion in the middle of Qudsaya, somewhere around here. This is a rough estimate made by matching the topographical and visual data in the videos with Google Earth and satellite map data. Importantly, it put the camera around 2.2 miles (3.5km) from the blast site, which tallied exactly with the time lag between flash and the boom in the lead video. Our map also shows what we determined to be the relative locations of the explosion (at the intersection of the two blue lines, amid the cluster of icons) and the rough position of the camera (denoted by the yellow camera icon):

A building that gave us our first clue about the location of the lead video is highlighted in these three images, two from the daylight video and one from our lead video of the blast. The sloped sides of the incline leading to the blast site match those on Google Earth and in the daylight video. We will call the building highlighted here the ‘double building’.

1. The double building, with a soccer pitch (blue pin)
2. A small building across the road that appears to be part of a water works or similar facility (red pin)
3. The water tower (purple pin)
4. The edge of a building next to the tower (purple balloon)
5. Possible electricity pylons on the hillside (pink pin).

The daylight footage of the strike site in this video helped us identify the location. What follows is the an account of the geolocation of key scenes from the video to satellite map data from Google Maps.

A garage (marked on the map with a blue car sign) is seen in the screengrabs below. The garage is on the road to Al Tal.

The plot and building across the road from the garage in the first shot (from 1m01s) match satellite data. The village of Al Fardos, near the site of January 30 strike, can be seen in the top left of the shot.

What looks like a quarry is also seen in the video (at 2m06s) and on the satellite map. The silos seen in this image are marked with a yellow pin on the map. They allowed us to corroborate the position of the garage.

Despite being hugely helpful in geolocating the general area targeted, the first daylight video did not allow us to pinpoint the exact location of the strike — or the buildings destroyed. This was despite the fact that it featured a long segment of the interviewer traversing a rubble-strewn wasteland. A second daylight video would allow us to pinpoint the location of two destroyed buildings.

This is the second daylight video, posted on May 6 by state news agency SANA. Most of the shots are of buildings filled with chickens and cattle (their exact purpose is unknown). More importantly, however, it showed scenes of rubble being cleared from an area that we were able to geolocate.

The still image above, from SANA, was taken from a position close to where the video was shot, and looking in the same direction. It even showed the same wrecked turquoise truck. The quality of the still shot was better and the angle wider, so we used it for verification. The following landmarks (circled in the still image and pinned on the map) allowed us to geolocate the scene:

1. Two cabins or sentry-like buildings on the far side of the road (blue balloons on map).

2. Two long buildings, one a step up from the other (green balloons on map).

By relating the daylight imagery to satellite map data, we were able to confirm the location of the rubble being cleared — giving us the location of two buildings destroyed in the raid. Seen clearly in satellite maps imagery, there is no sign of these buildings in the daylight videos or in the still photographs taken after the blast. They have been replaced by a mass of rubble and twisted metal, which is seen being cleared. The buildings are marked on the map with yellow balloons and the fire icon.

Storyful previously geolocated the January 30 strike on the ‘research facility’ at Jamraya with reference to social media data. A detailed explanation can be seen in this hub entry. Local media-activist pages on January 30 reported that violent explosions had rocked Fardos (الفردوس); that the site of these explosions was the Jamraya Scientific Research Facility; and that a very large pall of smoke had enveloped the whole neighbourhood, seen by people in nearby Hameh (الهامة). In the wake of the attack, local media activists reported heightened security around the facility, with Fardos effectively sealed off. Fardos is around a mile from the site of the blast detailed in this hub entry.

Shortly after the January 30 raid, Israel’s Channel 2 broadcast fresh satellite images of the car park at the facility near Fardos blackened by smoke:

Satellite images of a Syrian research facility north of Damascus published on Wednesday [February 6] appear to contain proof of an airstrike allegedly carried out by Israel against an arms convoy last week.

The Digital Globe satellite photos, broadcast by Channel 2, show a smoke-blackened parking lot outside the Jamraya scientific research facility that, in images published on Google Earth before the bombing, was not charred.

Contrary to the admissions of the Syrian state news agency SANA, from an aerial view none of the buildings at the site appears to have been damaged in the alleged strike.

This video of the damage from the January strike was broadcast by state satellite broadcaster Al-Ikhbaria. It also identifies the location as Fardous. The only damage to the main building is some blown-out windows. Clearly visible in the video are loaders (transport vehicles), suface-to-air missile launchers and a radar unit.

CONCLUSION

The appearance of video showing a dramatic night-time air strike on Damascus, on May 5, presented an opportunity to demonstrate the power of geolocation and to promote its practice. A central question surrounding the strike was where, exactly, it struck. Media reports tended to conflate the location of the May 5 strike with an earlier strike, on January 30, that targeted SAM rocket launchers outside a modern building. Our research, however, showed that the strikes targeted separate locations, the second being a significantly older facility about a mile away from the first strike.

The Syrian chemical and biological weapons program is known to have been developed in the 1970s and 1980s, reportedly in the area struck on May 5, with references to its physical location mentioning deep tunnels into the side of Mount Qasioun. According to available reports, non-military research took place alongside the development of weapons technology.

Whereas activists reporting the January 30 strike were fast to identify the location as a scientific research facility, the references were more hazy on May 5. Satellite data shows a wall around the more modern facility hit on January 30. The area hit by the second strike, by contrast, appears older, and the video evidence suggests that some of the buildings may even have been dilapidated before it was hit. It also appears to be more accessible — just off the main road to Al Tal and without any significant wall surrounding it.

The connection between the two locations is not known.

The operational purpose of pinpointing the exact location of the strike is to test and verify user-generated content, and reports, and to enable the work of journalists on the ground. In this way, video verification can be a useful back-desk operation — especially when operating in a real-time environment. Storyful has verified breaking news UGC from a variety of contexts, including thousands of videos from the Syrian conflict, including many documenting possible war crimes. Often, the team had pinpointed their location far beyond what is suggested by the frequently heard disclaimer: “This video cannot be independently verified”. Making a working example like this public was aimed at lifting the veil on that process and showcasing the practice and possibilities of video verification using public data and tools.

The process is inherently social, and the input of members of the community can be vital, and can be tested, opening the possibility of ‘gamifying’ such work on a larger scale, and making it cooperative. In this case, the material was available as a ‘story’, and as a Google Map and Google Earth KML file, with the key media and screenshots embedded.

I would like to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of a member of the community, @finriswolf, in this investigation. — Félim (@felimmcmahon).